Aldermen endorse closer look at research on countdown timers

Calgary aldermen are urging the city to look into a university study claiming pedestrian crossing countdown timers may be contributing to speeding driver crashes.

A University of Calgary researcher’s study found, on average, the intersections with the devices have more collisions between vehicles.

There were fewer incidents involving pedestrians.

It is believed drivers noticing the countdown are speeding up to make it through a light that will soon turn red.

City politicians are looking for more information.

“We need to have the chief of police and general manager of transportation and roads look at the research and really look into this,” said Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart.

“It’s good for the pedestrian because you know how long you have to get across but, in my experience, when I’m driving beside other drivers, they definitely speed up. I think it’s really worthwhile to pursue this,” she said.

“If there are more acci- dents, do those locations have speed-on-green cameras? The police raise a lot of revenue with those. We need the chief to tell us the circumstances here. There’s a lot more information that we need and we need to delve into this.”

In Calgary, there are 184 intersections with these signals, which have been in place since 2005.

City officials have said no spikes in crashes have been noticed in those specific intersections since the signals were installed.

The city’s traffic management centre reviews ongoing collision data in Calgary. Department of Economics assistant professor Arvind Magesan used Toronto data from the past five years, which revealed five fewer pedestrian collisions per month across the city at intersections with countdown timers. However, there were 21.5 more crashes per month between vehicles.

Ald. Richard Pootmans said he hopes the city’s traffic gurus will examine the situation. “It’s counter intuitive. We’re all looking very carefully at those lights as a safety feature. If it’s having an unintended consequence of drivers speeding by trying to beat it, perhaps that can be addressed,” said Pootmans.

“I was surprised by it and I’d like to learn more.”

The city’s speed-on-green cameras should be all that’s needed, said Ald. Andre Chabot.

“There are some who will use that as their way to race through a light, and that’s why we have speed-on-green cameras, so that those people who run those lights will have to pay a fine.”